For Me

For me
 Everything is for me
  Nothing is for him or her
   Or them
    It’s all for me
     The sunrise
      The sunset
       The rain
        The drained cup
         The laughter
          The anger
           The tears
            The cuss words
             The breath of a baby warming her father’s neck
              The cold
               The heat
                The accident that occurred on my street
                 Or the seven car pile-up three seas away
                  If I know of it
                 It is for me
                And me alone
               So when a video makes its rounds
              Plinking into my notifications
             Showing a Palestinian man
            Make his ablution in the freshly fallen water
           Welled into the worn canvas top of his tent
          That is for me
         For me to see
        And see again
       For me to ponder
      For me to feel the salty waves
     Of helplessness wash over me
    Then recede
   Like the shadow of the ‘asr prayer
  He chased
 And reached
For me